


Zirconium

by Uniasus



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies)
Genre: Cybertronian culture, Drabbles, Friendship, Gen, Post-Movie, more specifically just following the first one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-29 10:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 7,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3892615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uniasus/pseuds/Uniasus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Sam needed motivation for his daily run, he got chased by a Camaro with tinted windows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. List

**Author's Note:**

> Many of you who discovered me here probably know me primarily as a Rise of the Guardian author. But I assure you, I started out in the Transformers verse many years ago. I'm surprised it took me so long to transfer this fic over because it's my most well known one. It's about time I share it here.
> 
> The first chapter was first posted on ff.net in Jan 2010 and slowly over the years I expanded each prompt. Rest assured, you won't have to wait that long this time.

  1. He was so tiny, so small his arm could not even wrap around his entire leg, but whenever Sam tried and that warmth wrapped around him somewhere, he felt like he was in the strongest fortress ever built.




 

  1. The bruises that circled Sam’s ribs were a match to his handprint and burned in his processor, a constant reminder that humans were fragile and that he had hurt his charge.




 

  1. Sam had to build a wooden mousetrap for school and since there was a robot alien living in his garage he got an A.




 

  1. The world had stopped spinning as soon as he stopped breathing.




 

  1. There was just something about going really, really fast in a sleek hot rod.




 

  1. Sam was his inferior in every way but joy; the teen just could not stop smiling and his spirits could not help but be light.




 

  1. He had not gotten a decent recharge since he had found Sam; first it was enemies he was guarding against, now it was nightmares.




 

  1. He did not dream, but sometimes when Sam talked about his most recent one involving them sharing a surfboard, he wished he did.




 

  1. There were times he felt like an ordinary car, that Sam did not think of him as anything special, but then came one of those nights where the human chose to sleep on his back seat and before drifting off he would always say “You’re the best Bee” and snuggle into the seat.




 

  1. They did not have the same tastes in music, but they both enjoyed driving Mikaela crazy by playing Celtic jigs and reels on the way to school.




 

  1. It always surprised him how many layers of cloth Sam put on when the temperature dropped and it always amused him to no end to blow hot air at his charge while he wore them.




 

  1. There were few he trusted to see him without his armor or to get access to his more delicate systems; Sam was the only one he trusted with both.




 

  1. The thing about laptops was that the screen was so small; Bee’s windshield was a lot better to watch movies on.




 

  1. When Sam needed motivation for this daily run, he got chased by a Camaro with tinted windows.




 

  1. He did not understand Sam’s reluctance to use his father’s path; green life was not something Cybertron had and as such was something he did not think the human should carelessly damage.




 

  1. Humans had constructed wonderful ways to pass the time, they finally allowed him to defeat Ironhide and give him the visual of the weapons specialist as a dwarf.




 

  1. He spent most of his time in the classroom looking out the window and down into the parking lot.




 

  1. He could not spend as much time as he wanted to with Sam, to do so would be to prevent the human from interacting with any one else.




 

  1. Sam was not the best shower singer, nor the quietest since he could be heard from the garage, or did he just turn his microphones up to better hear his human?




 

  1. Mikaela liked to scold him about being too protective of his charge, but Sam never said a word about it.




 

  1. Sometimes it scared him how easily Sam could be hurt; those were the good days, there were others where he had to force himself to unlock the doors so Sam could go to school.




 

  1. He had always relied on statistical analysis and solid facts until Sam taught him hope and faith.




 

  1. Prime had a law that all sentient beings had the right to choose, but there was no way Sam was going to pick what car wash to go to – it had to be by hand.




 

  1. Nothing felt right in his life until a tiny, flesh extremity cleared the grime from the Autobot symbol on his steering wheel.




 

  1. Whoever conned the phrase ‘mystic bond between a man and machine’ would have been speechless if he met an Autobot.




 

  1. Sam may have been limited in the amount of things to tower over, but he did a good job at being a solid pillar of his life.




 

  1. Sometimes he hated this planet because everyone on it would leave him as soon as he flickered his optics.




 

  1. He never looked up to the stars to look for home anymore, he looked up at Sam’s window instead.




 

  1. He always wondered why Sam never looked at car magazines like his friend Miles until the human said there was no point because he surpassed them all.




 

  1. Water was not a new thing for him, but sponges and suds were and oh did he enjoy them.




 

  1. Bumblebee had this crazy need to have explanations for everything, but he just could not think of one for his mom’s obsession with bling.




 

  1. Sam should have scanners; it would prevent him from jumping at shadows.




 

  1. He had just assumed Bee would take a liking to techno music due to familiarity, but his taste leaned more towards classical piano and violin because Cybertron did not have string instruments.




 

  1. It always surprised Sam that such rational beings not only had a religion, but were devote followers.




 

  1. He did not like to think about the fact that Bee was older than his entire race; how does one relate to that other than “I’m older than the Sony Playstation”?




 

  1. If given a chance between ending the war or leaving the Autobots to say with Sam, even when the human was just calcium formations, he was not too sure what he would choose.




 

  1. Bee did not have to stay with him, it had been years since a ‘Con had shown up, but the Camaro never took the opening to leave and the slight hesitation before answering ‘no’ each time made him wonder if Bee was staying for the reasons he thought he was.




 

  1. Snow always put humans in a good mood; he wished he had bottled up an entire season’s worth so he could erase Sam’s frown.




 

  1. Light shone off Bee so brightly, made the Camaro so sparkly, that Sam was sometimes left wondering how no one realized his car was an alien yet.




 

  1. Colors attracted Bee, from the bright yellow of his hood to the green leaves on the tree and when he asked why, the Autobot said it was such a welcoming sight after having nothing but the gray of a ship and the black of space to look at for vorns.




 


	2. Cobolt

* * *

#### Sometimes he hated this planet because everyone on it would leave him as soon as he flickered his optics. 

* * *

A lot could happen in a day. Even more in a week. And so much more in a year. But he never expected that so many could be born and die in that time span. Because a Cybertronian sidereal year, what they had translated to ‘vorn’ for the humans, equaled approximately 83 Earth sidereal years. 

The world average life expectancy for humans was 67.2 Earth years. It was higher in the United States, 78.75 Earth years, but that did not give him very much relief. Many died younger, like that boy in Sam’s math class who died on the table during a heart surgery. Or that young couple on the news who had been crushed when a tree fell into their house during a storm. And then there was that man down the street who had a heart attack while running a marathon. And also that distant cousin of Sam’s in the armed forces. 

Even if it wasn’t for the United State’s political issues, war in the Middle East and the frightening feeling he had felt when Sam turned 18 and was eligible for the draft if one was ever implemented, there was his own. He was built for war and the opponents were mostly his peers in size. But it would take no effort at all for any of the Deceptions to end Sam’s life. A misstep could do it, a stray canon shot. But it would be no mistake if a Con took Sam’s life, it would be a task of great intent with high praise, because Sam was almost as wanted dead as Prime himself. 

But even if war was not an issue at all, Cybertronian or human, he would still hate this planet. Oh yes it was beautiful, sweeping landscapes that changed from region to region, a variety of life and color, and of course it had Sam. But he hated this planet for giving humans such a short life. Some species lived over a hundred Earth years, why couldn’t Sam’s? Or better yet, why couldn’t he live as long as a Cybertronian? 

Living in a war, never knowing what could happen, had taught him to not look farther than a year – one of his own years – to appreciate each week of calm between battles. Here on Earth, he was learning to appreciate days, hours, minutes, seconds. Because Sam’s entire life, if he was lucky enough to even reach 83, would only take up 4.39825 of his days. 

He was determined to make them the best days of his life.


	3. Heliuum

#### The bruises that circled Sam’s ribs were a match to his handprint and burned in his processor, a constant reminder that humans were fragile and that he had hurt his charge. 

* * *

He had not been able to see them right away. Sam had been kept at a human medic facility overnight for observation and it had been another day until he managed to find (and move to without the neighbors noticing) the spot in the driveway that gave him the most unobtrusive view into the teen’s bedroom. And bathroom, but he had the sense not to inform Sam of that. 

So it was three days later that he got that chance to see the bruises. There was a massive one on his back, still too fresh to be any other color but purple. More such marks littered his legs and arms and the deep brown of long scabs were scattered around Sam’s body. But those he all dismissed; they were gathered during the most recent battle at the place the humans called Mission City. Everyone got hurt in a battle. If you didn’t it was because you were a coward and hid. But his charge was no such thing, so battle wounds were accepted and in a strange way forgiven. 

It was the older bruise that sent him sinking to the ground.

Wrapping around Sam’s torso, it was several days old and a concoction of deep purple and green that jumped out at him. He could see the thick vertical bands on the right side of the human’s side, a singular one on the other, and by the shift in colors could see where they connected on Sam’s back. 

This one caught his attention because it was not a bruise of battle, but of hiding. And not due to clumsiness, but his own hands. He knew that if he hadn’t caught Sam, things would be very different. Jazz might be alive still, he might not have gotten caught by Sector Seven, Prime might have died via All Spark suicide, or Megatron might have gained control over it and Earth would have been lost. But he was certain that if he hadn’t caught Sam, the human would not be in his bedroom right now preparing to shower. There was a chance the fall from Prime’s shoulder would not have killed him, but it would have seriously harmed him. 

Preserving Sam’s life however did not stop him from cringing at the bruise. Because protecting his charge (their savior-in-one-way-but-not-another) from harm, he was not supposed to deal it out himself.


	4. Gallium

* * *

####  Bumblebee had this crazy need to have explanations for everything, but he just could not think of one for his mom’s obsession with bling. 

* * *

He assumed it had something to do with being a robot – er, mechanoid. Logic relays and all that. Bee wanted to know about everything. The practical stuff was easy to find on the Internet (Why did it snow? What did this slang word mean? What was ice cream made of?), but not everything was cataloged in the World Wide Web. 

Usually these casual questions didn’t bother him. 

-Why is your name ‘Sam’? Mom thought it sounded nice.  
-Why does your Dad like to garden? He says it’s peaceful and gets him out of the house.  
-Why do you eat strawberries if you’re allergic? Cuz they taste really good, especially with sugar.

But sometimes they stopped him dead in his tracks.

-Why does your mother like ‘bling’?

Because to be honest, he had no idea. Frankie and Mojo had matching ‘bling-a-licous’ collars and their doghouse had a shiny dog statue on the roof perched like a hood ornament. The words on the fridge magnets had been traced in glitter paint, many of the flower pots had colored glass stones around the edge, and her favorite nail polish was this clear stuff with gold sparkles in it. 

Maybe she liked shiny things, maybe they were always out of the sparkly craft supplies in elementary school, what ever the reason, he had no idea. It was one of those things you just accept and then ignore as much as you could. 

So he gave Bee the answer every toddler (and as he was learning, Autobot) hated: “Just because.”


	5. Flourine

####  Flourine

* * *

There were times he felt like an ordinary car, that Sam did not think of him as anything special, but then came one of those nights where the human chose to sleep on his back seat and before drifting off he would always say “You’re the best Bee” and snuggle into the seat.

* * *

Humans tended to personify everything; everything from boats to stuffed animals were given names and characters. It was common for a driver to pat a car, call it by name, feel attachment to it and get possessive and paranoid about lending it out. 

It made him feel…ordinary, of no great importance. Sam never did anything other humans didn’t and he suspected the teen simply enjoyed the status and stares that driving around with him resulted in. He felt like an object at times, a toy that Sam took care of with great care, but a toy nonetheless. 

Maybe it would be different if he could use his voice modulator all the time and without pain, so they could have real conversations and he could voice his exact positions. Or if he had more room to transform, could do it more often to remind Sam he was an Autobot and not a nice ride. Or if the time Sam spent in his cab was not shared with Miles more than half the time. 

It not that he was looking for special treatment, but acknowledgment from time to time that he more than a car would be nice. 

It was a common thought, one that should have been banished by now but kept coming up, despite the little moments he shared with Sam.

Like how in the first week after Mission City Sam would creep down to the garage every night and check up on him. Or how carefully Sam tried to introduce him to Earth culture. And then there was that time the human helped him clean and oil his parts at the overlook. 

But his favorite was the nights when Sam would sneak down into the garage and climb in. They didn’t have to say anything, they somehow managed to convey what the wanted without words, and Sam would smile and mutter something about him being the best before drifting off. 

That always chased away the dark thoughts and made him doubt every one.


	6. Hydrogen

#### Hydrogen

* * *

**He was so tiny, so small his arm could not even wrap around his entire leg, but whenever Sam tried and that warmth wrapped around him somewhere, he felt like he was in the strongest fortress ever built.**

* * *

There were entire places, entire beings in the world whose entire purpose was to protect. Banks protect money, safes jewelry, government the people, knights the queen and king, armies the country, creators sparklings.

He had been built to protect from the beginning, but he hadn’t been a successful protector. Guarding the All Spark had been an extremely important task, but during the course of the war it had been taken away from him. So he had adjusted, improved, learned to protect other things. He protected ideals, his fellow comrades, was always seeing something worth protecting and doing all he could to keep it safe. 

Being placed in charge of an organic forced him to be that much better. They were in danger from more things than any of his own kind, including their own planet. And Sam had the additional hazard of having Decepticons on his aft. But he did it, he protected the human as long as he could, until old protocols came up and he had to protect something greater than one life: the All Spark. 

It hurt, trading one task for another. It had been done before, all throughout his life, and when the All Spark was destroyed he was sad and upset and scared for his fellow Cybertronians. But also, secretly, deep down, happy that Sam could be his sole focus, the most important thing he was in charge of protecting. 

And then the human, the tiny, so easy to damage human, flipped his world around. Because after so long protecting others, there were times that made him feel as if Sam was protecting him, was a fortress all by his little organic self, and it was stronger than anything he could hope to be now or in the future. 

Didn’t mean he didn’t try though. Sometimes even fortresses needed protection, why else had moats been built?


	7. Calcium

#### Calcium

* * *

**Mikaela liked to scold him about being too protective of his charge, but Sam never said a word about it.**

* * *

“Bee, it’s an amusement park, you know a place to have fun?” Mikaela stood in front of him, hands on her hips, while Sam sat on a grass patch a little ways away picking apart the plant life.

He shook his head. “It’s a dangerous place. There are numerous research reports and case studies detailing ways in which humans can be injured - ”

“The odds are really low! Plenty of people have gone plenty of times and came back in one piece! The rides have safety bars and seat belts and a whole host of other safety restrictions. They watch the weather, and if it’s too windy or wet the rides close down. I hate it when they do that. But tomorrow’s supposed to be sunny with no chance of clouds so you don’t have to worry about any of that.”

“No, I just have to worry about the rides falling apart because of improper care, out dated parts, unobservant workers, sabotage - ”

Mikaela snorted. “Sabotage? Really? Come on Bee, that never happens.”

“There’s a first for everything. And then there is all the other issues with your brains hitting the inside of your skulls, restraints pinching nerves, fainting, nausea, food poisoning and a variety of other possibilities.”

“Gah! You’re worse than my Gram.” Mikaela turned around and sent a pointed glare towards Sam. “Don’t you have anything to say? It’s you he’s preventing from going you know.”

Sam looked up from the piece of grass he was trying to turn into a whistle, looked at his girlfriend, continued to look up at his guardian, and then shook his head. 

“No, if Bee says no I’m not going to argue.”

“Sam!” the girl exclaimed, but the boy had gone back to blowing air over the piece of grass between his thumbs. 

“Fine,” she stomped over to the Sam and collapsed next to him. “You’re being way too protective of him Bee.”

He shook his head. “I’m only being logical.”

“Well, if you’re logical then you can also be fair. If we can’t go to the amusement park, we’ll go to the zoo instead. You can feed the white alligators they have on tour there.” Mikaela started as Sam succeeded in buzzing the piece of grass, the noise sounding like a duck. She sent the teen a glare and Sam curved in on himself sheepishly. 

“You can go to the zoo, but you may not feed the gators!”


	8. Carbon

#### 

Carbon 

* * *

Sam was his inferior in everyway but joy; the teen just could not stop smiling and his spirits could not help but be light. 

* * *

He was taller, more durable, stronger, smarter, quicker, a faster healer, lived longer, had more experience, was a better fighter, could change forms, was of a higher social rank, was better looking, told better stories, able to block pain, able to do what was necessary, could think up of fun activities, had a larger music library, knew how to interact with aliens, knew how to set up a prank and frame someone else, could stay up later, had a more efficient waste system, didn’t suffer nightmares, caught the eye of more females, tougher, cooler, had more fans, older, was better at hide and seek, traveled to more places, had better aim, didn’t let his emotions dictate his actions, and could make any awkward situation unawkward,

He had more demons, seen more death, had a darker soul, knew how to withstand torture, lost more friends, had an pessimistic imagination, was more haunted, knew how to kill painfully or quickly, shoots then looks at the victim, had more scars, has left more pieces of himself through out the universe, recharged less, had more vivid memories of things he didn’t want to remember, had more flashbacks, had more failures, knew less people, couldn’t plan for his future, had to follow orders, sometimes couldn’t feel, and was all around heavier. 

Sam didn’t care either way. The teen just smiled, smiled some more, and kept on going, giving some sort of warmth to his soul and sharing some sort of invisible light and lifting a weight he didn’t know was there. Maybe if he stayed long enough on Earth, things would be brighter.


	9. Nitrogen

#### Nitrogen

* * *

He had not gotten a decent recharge since he had found Sam; first it was enemies he was guarding against, now it was nightmares.

* * *

Amongst his fellow Autobots, he would be able to sleep well. There was always some one recharging lightly, the one on sentry duty. They were all able to rest while still keeping an eye on the surrounding area, setting proximity alerts and keeping scanners peeled while shutting down. A lot of the energy stocked up during recharging went to power these settings, but with practice over the vorns they were still able to function at battle level if need be the next day. It had happened many a times. 

But it wasn't something to survive on for long. Eventually it caught up to you and you would need a completely inactive recharge to be able to successfully function. That's why solo missions were hard. 

He had been on many solo missions, it came with being a scout, and was one of the few who could last a long time on sentry recharges. As such, he was likely to use it more than was strictly necessary. That and he was very concerned about doing his job well. 

When he found Sam, he was on the lookout for the Decepticons he knew would be coming after the human. But in the few days they'd gotten to know each other, his affection for the boy grew. That always happened in battle, you form a connection with those you fight with. It was the reason why Optimus Prime's group was so strong and an effective team. But with Sam, it had been natural almost from the start. 

And the human had done many things to be in his debt.

So he offered to stay with Sam, protect him, and with the danger gone and the rest of his team in calling distance he was happy to get a good night's rest. And he tried, the first night, but he woke up to screams coming from Sam's room and he jerked awake, defense systems on overdrive in an attempt to make up from being lax. He was so stupid!

It wasn't a Decepticon attack, but a nightmare, one that had brought Judy Witwicky into the room to calm him down. She tried to get Sam to talk about it, but the teen refused and he suspected it had to do with Mission City. He was a guardian, Sam's guardian, and if these night terrors were great enough to disrupt and scare Sam, he had to do something to protect the teen from them. 

So he stayed up the next night, noticed the bio signs that meant Sam was having a nightmare, and over several nights tried several things to dissolve them. Soothing music, shaking him (which didn't work out quite as he had expected), and waking the teen up with his horn (which the neighbor's complained about after a week and Sam had to get him 'fixed'). What finally worked was a low EMP adjusted to the frequencies of Sam's brain.

But it was a good two months before he could fall into an inactive recharge. Not that he minded. It wasn't like he needed to be battle ready to take Sam to school.


	10. Oxygen

#### Oxygen

* * *

He did not dream, but sometimes when Sam talked about his most recent one involving them sharing a surfboard, he wished he did.

* * *

Human brains did wonderful things at night. They created impossible worlds, both terrible and beautiful, and worked in such an illogical way he couldn't help be awed. He always asked Sam if he remembered his dream from the night before on the way to schoo, and while the teen didn't always remember, he was getting better at it. It was wondrous, if confusing to hear of the imaginary worlds. 

“So here I am, standing in the middle of this house made of ice cream when it all starts to melt. I grab my surf board-”

“I wasn't aware that you know how to surf.”

“I don't.”

“Where did the surf board come from?”

Sam shrugged. “It's a dream, who knows. Hammerspace. Anyway, I grab my surf board and paddle out into the ice cream and then this big wave of mint chocolate chip comes at me so I turn the board around. And then you're there, pulling me to my feet, except, you're like, my height, and you shoot at the wave. It turns into pop rocks ice cream, making that snapping sound, and grows twice the size it had been before.” Sam measured out a large space between his hands. 

“And then we caught it, surfed through this prairie, and then...I can't remember much more. Something about a duck in a tree I think. And a elevator that moved sideways.”

The absurdity of it all swirled through his processor, but it was a good feeling. He liked getting confused by illogical things, similar to how Mikaela liked scaring herself on roller coasters.


	11. Neon

#### Neon

* * *

They did not have the same tastes in music, but they both enjoyed driving Mikaela crazy by playing Celtic jigs and reels on the way to school. 

* * *

“Hey guys, what are you talking about?” Mikaela asked as she slipped inside of Bee.

“Sam is trying to explain 'Riverdance' to me,” Bee said.

Mikaela looked at her boyfriend and raised an eyebrow. “Riverdance?”

“Yeah, apparently they're in town next month and my mom wants to go see them.”

“Ew.” she wrinkled her nose. 

“What? You don't like Irish dancing?”

“I have nothing against the dancing, but I hate the music. It's so...reedy and twangy, it reminds me of really bad country music. Plus it's boring, no words.”

The radio went through a couple of clicks. “Bumblebee, don't you dare!”

But it was too late, Bee had a reel blasting from the speakers and no matter how many buttons Mikaela pushed or knobs she turned, nothing changed. “Bee! Turn it off! I don't want to show up to school with you playing this.”

“Why not?” Sam laughed, and Been joined him. “I don't mind at all.”

“Boys!” she huffed, sinking down in the passenger seat and crossing her arms.


	12. Sodium

#### 

~Sodium~

* * *

It always surprised him how many layers of cloth Sam put on when the temperature dropped and it always amused him to no end to blow hot air at his charge while he wore them.

* * *

Jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a sweatshirt, and thick socks. Longish hair, because Sam said it helped keep his ears warm. He watched through the kitchen window as the human had breakfast, oatmeal and coffee, more warm stuff. And continued to watch as Sam slipped his feet into boots, his arms into a down coat, wrapped a scarf around his neck once, zipped the coat, and then checked his pockets for the gloves and hat kept there, just in case Sam needed them. 

All these layers of fabric were of a curiosity and also confusing. It's not like he was going very far, just from the house to his interior, and even the walk across the school parking lot was short. And all these layers! And Mikaela did it too! 

So just to highlight the absurdity of it, as soon as they were halfway down the street he'd blow hot air into Sam's face. 

“Bee! Cut it out!'

“No.”

“Come on. Not Funny.” Sam had unzipped his coat and was pulling on his scarf. 

“Alright, alright.” He stopped blowing hot air. For the moment. He started again after they picked up Mikaela.


	13. Beryllium

#### Beryllium

The world had stopped spinning as soon as he stopped breathing.

* * *

His life was stagnant, went by in clicks of duty. Click, free time. Click, work. Click, sleep. All as momentous as the flipping of a light switch. 

And then he met Sam, a creature whose life was so short he had to make the most of his time. 

Life suddenly went from single clicks to so many they blurred together like the trees when he went fast on the highway and then all of a sudden he realized his world was spinning. Centripetal force swung him from thought to thought, event to event, and he realized he actually got Life. It was supposed to be fast, always changing, always experiencing new and incredible things. It was...Sam. 

So when he looked through the leafless branches of a tree in Egypt, saw Sam lying still with a paramedic holding a defibrillator above the teen's chest, his world ground to a stop so quickly the force knocked him down.


	14. Chlorine

####  Chlorine 

* * *

He spent most of his time in the classroom looking out the window and down into the parking lot.

* * *

He always made a point of hurrying from History to English, to the point where Mikaela never bothered with trying to keep up anymore. He’d knock into shoulders, power walk down the hallways, and take the stairs two at a time, English binder and book tucked under his arm next to his History ones. Miss Mewsten was the one teacher who after the first week of class tore up the seating chart and told them to sit where they liked. 

He was never the first one, his History class was too far away for that, but he always did manage to there early enough to get the seat he wanted. 

He pushed open the door, walked across the front of the classroom, and then made his way down the aisle next to the windows. Once he found a view he liked, he plopped down in a seat and stuck his binders across the aisle to hold a seat for Mikaela.

Leaning back, he looked out the window and waved his fingers toward Bee in the parking lot. Bee flashed his lights in response. All of a sudden, his view was full of boobs and side as Mikaela leaned over him to give her own greeting to the Camaro. 

He poked her knee and Mikaela slapped his hand away. “You’re such a child, Sam.”

“But one who saved the world.”

“Hmm, maybe.” She settled back into her seat and he stole a sip of her Dr. Pepper. 

Miss Mewsten walked in and started class, forcing the students to settle into an unwanted learning mode. He took out his cellphone and while it was discreetly under the desk changed the screen setting before flickering the light towards Bee. 

He alternated between aiming the phone at the bottom of his desk and out the window until he’d finish his message and then Bee would respond in a flash of lights, spending the entire class period communicating in Morse Code with his car.


	15. Zinc

#### ~Zinc~

* * *

Water was not a new thing for him, but sponges and suds were and oh did he enjoy them.

* * *

H2O. A combination of three atoms, two of whom the atomic weight was one and the other eight. Humans called it water. But while Earth had more of the universal solvent than he had ever seen, it wasn’t new to him. What was new was all the frivolous, wasteful ways it was used. 

“You’re going to use that to clean my exterior?”

Sam looked at the bucket near his feet – filled with a variety of colored things, a white foamy substance, and water – and then at the hose in his hand.

“Um, yeah. Not like I’d use anything else.”

He didn’t say anything and Sam turned the nozzle. A stream of water came out to make contact with his hood. Sam walked around him, covering his frame in the solvent. Water dripped off to run down the driveway and out into the street; he did his best not to think about the waste. 

Sam turned the hose off and the Camaro let the water drip off of him. He could feel the grime on his outer plates wash away; what a poor substitute for a sonic bath that cleaned his interior as well. 

But then Sam placed something warm and soft against his hood and he felt his axles sag in a sudden rush of relaxation. Sam paused. “You alright there Bee?”

“Mmm yup. Whatever you’re using is wonderful.”

“Soap and a sponge?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

Sam laughed.


	16. Zirconium

#### 

Zirconium

* * *

Colors attracted Bee, from the bright yellow of his hood to the green leaves on the tree and when he asked why, the Autobot said it was such a welcoming sight after having nothing but the gray of a ship and the black of space to look at for vorns.

* * *

Bumblebee had the worst sense of fashion; he adored tie-dyed clothes. The bright neon colored ones were his favorite. And the scout had insisted on the addition of several car accessories: a fuzzy tie-dyed wheel cover, bright pink fuzzy dice, and colorful floor mats. 

He didn’t get it, find the attraction in the painful colors, but he had gotten good at making up lies about favoring them. After all the questions Bee’s get-up drew, it was hard not to develop the talent. 

But when Bumblebee started contemplating changing his paint job to something resembling a hippie van, it was hard to keep his mouth shut. 

“Bee, you’re bright yellow. You stick out already. Having a baby blue flower on your hood will not help you blend in.”

“I have yet to attract unwanted attention in this form, and I don’t believe changing my paint will greatly change that.”

“But flowers, Bee?”

“I like the colors.”

“But they’ve so…so…” he waved his arm through the air. 

“Bright? Vibrant?”

“I was gonna say nauseous, but those work too.”

“You don’t like them,” Bee gloomed. 

“I don’t understand your attraction to them.” He shook his head. 

“It’s very dark, traveling through space. No colors at all. And even Cybertron is mostly gray. All the colors here are a nice change of pace.”

They sat in silence a minute, until the human pushed off from leaning again the Autobot. 

“I see your point. But I’m still saying no to the flower, you’ll look like a girl’s car.”


	17. Yttrium

#### ~Yttrium~

* * *

Light shone off Bee so brightly, made the Camaro so sparkly, that Sam was sometimes left wondering how no one realized his car was an alien yet.

* * *

Miles was one of those kids who didn’t need drugs to be paranoid and think up crazy theories. In fact, he should most likely be on drugs, but he had never been officially diagnosed by a doctor. Too border line. But it meant Miles had a thing for aliens. Half of his theories involved them.

And, because, let's be honest, Bee was so shiny, so sparkly, it was hard to understand how there weren’t any suspicions that the Camaro was something other than a normal, albeit pricey-out-of-his-league car. So if anyone harbored suspicions, it would be Miles. It was a good check-Bee’s-ability-to-hide test.

“So Miles,” he brought up during lunch one day. “Did you see that article in The Pitch? About aliens invaders?”

“Oh yeah, that’s rubbish,” Miles said around a mouthful of sandwich. “Alien’s don’t wear people suits.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. I mean, they want to observe us without our knowledge. So they stay out of sight.”

“You don’t think they could be shape shifters or anything?”

“Maybe, but they would have to sorta look like use to begin with.” Miles took a loud slurp of his Capri-Sun. “Why? Think you saw one?” He narrowed his eyes and leaned over the table.

“No! I was just thinking, what if aliens were like robots or something?”

“That’d be pretty cool actually. But if that were the case, I’d have heard something by now from one of my sites.”

“So aliens aren’t super shiny?”

“Nope. They’re super slimy. You just destroy them with shiny things.”

He never knew if it was a good or bad thing Miles was so clueless.


	18. Strontium

### ~Strontium~

* * *

Snow always put humans in a good mood; he wished he had bottled up an entire season’s worth so he could erase Sam’s frown.

* * *

He remembered his first snowfall. Judy had gotten all excited and dragged Sam and Ron out of the house. They had gone grumbling, complaining about leaving the warmth four walls and a roof provided, but once outside they secreted the same type of joy. Sam opened his mouth to try to catch a snowflake. Judy did too, but made the extra effort to chase them instead of just standing there like her son. Ron just smiled at the pair of them.

He had watched in fascination as the humans played around, and again the next morning when they grabbed handfuls of the stuff and threw it at each other. Sam had thrown a snowball at his windshield that smattered against the glass with a wet smack. He jerked back, surprised at the attack, and then launched his own by spinning his wheels and splattered the teen with snow. 

Sam had stood there in shock, sputtering as snow dripped down his front. Then he was hit in the back by simultaneous snowballs from his creators. An evil grin split the teen’s face. “Let’s get ‘em, Bee.”

And so began the first of many snow fights that season, all started by some magical cue seeing snow tends to trigger in people. Something about the white precipitation just seemed to make everyone happy. It was a shame he did not collect it and store if for later on in the year.


	19. Lithium

#### 

Lithium

* * *

Sam had to build a wooden mousetrap for school and since there was a robot alien living in his garage he got an A.

* * *

After scrounging through the basement and attic, he figured he had everything he needed. Wood, a variety of poles, several round things, string, and of course a mousetrap. He collected everything in a bucket, set it on the driveway, gathered his father’s tools from the garage and settled on the cement. Bumblebee had followed him from the garage, curious. 

“What are you doing?” The Camaro asked.

“Building a mousetrap powered car.”

“Why?”

“For class.” He over turned the bucket and hovered his hand over potential axles. There were pieces from old K’Nex sets, a straw taken from the kitchen, an unused toothbrush from the dentist, a couple of pip cleaners, as well as some short round wooden sticks he found in the shop room.

“And it has to be built out of this?”

He looked up at Bee’s grill. “Yeah, we can’t spend any money, just use what we have at home and the wood and mousetrap we were given. The goal is to build the car that goes the farthest. We’re racing them tomorrow.”

“Can you change the shape of the wood?”

“I think so, why?”

“Well, you want to win, don’t you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If none of you have ever built a mouse-trap racer, you should. It's a good thing to tinker with for a day.


	20. Boron

#### ~Boron~

* * *

There was just something about going really, really fast in a sleek hot rod.

* * *

He didn’t know what exactly it was, couldn’t put a finger on it. But it was there, and had nothing to do with his car being an alien robot in disguise. Maybe it was the feel of the air through his fingers when he slipped his hand out the window. Maybe it was the roar of the engine and how the vibrations didn’t stop at the motor but continued to radiate throughout the car to accompany his own excited pulse. It could be the looks he got, the ones he knew were being sent his way but could never catch because he was going too fast. He couldn’t see a lot of things; the road lines blurred, the nearby trees – some of the far ones too-, the clouds, the faces, the small metal posts lining the road. It could have been Bee’s chosen alt form. But there was just some sort of magical feeling, some type of powerful, I’m a movie star feeling, that came with driving fast in a pricy car. 


	21. Silicon

* * *

14) When Sam needed motivation for his daily run, he got chased by a Camaro with tinted windows.

* * *

Escaping from Megatron had been a fluke. He had been given the largest head start ever, and still the Decepticon had caught up. He would have died, if Prime hadn’t happened to be there.  He realized a lot of thing in his life had been due to luck: that A- on his history paper, Mikeala seeing him crash on his mom’s bike that day, that Barricade hadn’t found him earlier, that those guard dogs hadn’t ripped him apart.  It was all a great deal of luck.

It was certainly more than he thought he deserved, and there was the repetitive worry that it couldn’t last much longer, that his luck would run out. 

So he had to learn to do without, or at least not rely on it so much.  He’d start with running.  It was easy enough to do; he didn’t need to buy anything.  Just walk out his door and start jogging.

He tried, but about seven minutes into it the stitch in his side caused him to stop and he walked the rest of the way, picking up the pace only when he was in sight of his house.

Next time he’d do better. 

And so, two days later he headed out again, but he didn’t get much farther, just two more houses down the street. He slowed to a walk, but the loud growl behind him had him turn.  Bumblebee was coming up fast, with no plans to stop.  So he ran, the entire course this time, cursing the entire route until he collapsed on his father’s grass. 


	22. Copper

* * *

  
29) He always wondered why Sam never looked at car magazines like his friend Miles until the human said there was no point because he surpassed them all.

* * *

The first time it happened, he didn’t think anything of it. Nor the second. But come the third time it was a curiosity and come the fifth time he was debating about asking about it.

Miles had a habit of buying car magazines and bringing them to class, sneaking looks at them instead of paying attention to the teachers. And after the school day, when Sam (or technically him) was driving him home Miles would share highlights. New stats, possible developments, and lots of pictures. The blonde would sigh, eye, and drool over them, but Sam gave Miles, and the magazines, the minimum of his attention. 

The blonde would always leave the magazine, accidentally of course, in his cab. But Sam never noticed it, never browsed through it on his own. He’d only realize it was there when Miles saw it the next day and made a comment along the lines of ‘I wondered where that was’. It was very abnormal behavior; all of the other male teens would have picked it up and flipped through it at least. Mikaela did. 

So he decided to mention the left behind periodical. 

“Miles left his magazine,” he said as Sam gathered his backpack from the back seat.

“We’ll return it tomorrow.” Sam stood up.

“Don’t you want to read it?”

“What’s the point? They can’t beat you, even if you still were that rusted ’76 version.”

**Author's Note:**

> The title, Zirconium, comes from the fact that it's the element with the atomic weight of 40. Subsequent chapters are named after elements with the same weight as the prompt number.


End file.
